A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device which includes a metronome system for interfacing a plurality of sound recordings.
Contemporary gaming machines, such as slot machines, include a primary game and one or more bonus rounds. Typically, a bonus round begins when the player reaches a bonus triggering event in the primary game. In slot machines with reel-based primary games, the triggering event usually occurs when the player reaches a predetermined combination of symbols on the reels. Usually, the bonus scheme provides the player with an opportunity to gain a bonus value before the bonus round terminates.
Most of these gaming machines include computer systems which generate sounds and music at various times during the primary games and bonus rounds (at times referred to herein as xe2x80x9cgamesxe2x80x9d). The computer systems play various sound recordings when certain events occur in the games. A sound recording includes one or more sound effects and/or musical pieces. For example, often when the computer system is playing one musical piece, an event occurs, and the computer system switches to a different musical piece.
Switching sound recordings presents several problems. In the instant example, the game designer cannot control where the new musical piece will begin with respect to the current beat of the old musical piece. A typical result is an out-of-beat transition between the old piece of music and the new piece of music. In addition, game designers are unable to create sound schemes which involve multiple sound recordings which are played successively or together based upon a common timing system. Gaming machine sound schemes are consequently limited. To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with new gaming machines with the capacity for more sophisticated sound schemes which involve the interface of multiple sound recordings.
The present invention overcomes the above shortcomings by providing a gaming device with a metronome system capable of interfacing different sound recordings on any tick of a regular, repeating interval. The term, interface, as used herein, includes switching, replacing combining, supplementing, splicing, overlaying or otherwise partially or wholly joining two or more sound recordings, temporarily or permanently.
In one embodiment, the metronome system of the present invention can be incorporated into a computer system of any gaming device which includes: a central processing unit (CPU); input and output devices; game read only memory (ROM); game random access memory (RAM); a sound card, including sound files and a sound processor; and a bus which enables all of these components to communicate. It should be appreciated that the metronome system can also be incorporated into other types of computer systems which do not include all of these components but which operate one or more gaming devices remotely.
In one embodiment of the metronome system of the present invention, the metronome system includes game code, music code and metronome code within the game ROM, and the game RAM includes metronome random access memory (RAM). The metronome RAM includes game state data, a check-back rate, beat count data and bar count data. The music code, which is preferably commercially available, is a set of instructions which the CPU uses to determine the type, duration and volume of tones to be played.
The metronome code is a set of instructions which the CPU uses to generate and store the game state data, check-back rate, beat count data and bar count data in the metronome RAM. The game state data is data which the CPU generates in response to particular sound-causing events which occur in the game. The CPU generates different data for each type of sound-causing event. For example, if a player makes a winning selection, the CPU may generate game state data specific to that sound-causing event. Preferably, the game state data includes data for the following sound-causing events: game start events, value-winning events, bonus triggering events, player selection events and game termination events. It should be appreciated, however, that the game state data can include data for other sound-causing events. The game state data also flags the CPU to conduct certain sound file changes, as described below.
The check-back rate is the component of the metronome system which plays the role of a physical metronome (a musical time-keeping device which marks time with ticks at regular intervals). The check-back rate is the rate at which the CPU checks or reads the game state data to detect the occurrence of sound-causing events. When the CPU makes such a reading, a tick or check-back (as referred to herein) is said to have occurred.
The check-back rate is preferably equal to the tempo of a sound recording. The tempo is the number of beats per second which occur in a sound recording. Therefore, if a sound recording had one beat per second, the CPU would read the game state data on every beat. In one embodiment, the CPU directs the sound card to switch two sound recordings in such a manner that the sound recordings are on-beat with one another. The check-back rate can, however, be set to any suitable rate, such that the CPU reads the game state data at subdivisions of beats or on a particular beat following a set of beats.
In musical terminology, it is common to refer to a set of beats as a measure bound by barlines or bars. A sound recording can consist of two or more measures which repeat in a loop. Each measure can be identified by the bar number at the beginning of the measure.
As will be discussed below, if the CPU reads the game state data on beats, there is a need to identify at which beat the CPU is reading the game state data. Similarly, there is a need to identify at which bar the CPU conducted its reading of the game state data. For this reason, the CPU generates beat count data and bar count data which is, in effect, a record of the current beat and bar being played.
In operation, the CPU preferably writes a predetermined check-back rate when a primary game or bonus round begins. However, it should be appreciated that the CPU can wait and write a -predetermined check-back rate after the primary game or bonus round begins. For example, the CPU can write a check-back rate at the same time the CPU begins to play a predetermined sound file (i.e., an entry musical piece for a game). In either case, the CPU preferably writes a check-back rate equal to the tempo of a sound recording. However, the metronome code can instruct the CPU to set the check-back rate to any other suitable rate.
Once the CPU writes a check-back rate, the CPU then reads the game state data at regular intervals or ticks determined by the check-back rate. The CPU also stores beat count data and bar count data each time the CPU reads the game state data. Once a sound-causing event occurs, the next time the CPU reads the game state data (i.e., on the next tick), the CPU will detect this event. The CPU then uses the metronome code to read the game state data for that particular event and then conduct specified sound file changes.
Preferably, the sound file changes include playing a different musical sound recording on the beat whereupon the CPU detected the sound-causing event, within a predetermined number of beats thereafter or on the beat following the upcoming bar. The sound file changes can also include stopping the current musical sound recording at the instant beat. For example, the game state data can instruct the CPU to make a file change on a particular beat in a particular measure (i.e., the first beat of bar one). Furthermore, the sound file changes can include increasing or decreasing the volume of the current musical sound recording. In addition to playing musical sound recordings, the sound file change can, instead, include playing a sound effect on any beat or bar, but preferably on the instant beat.
It should be appreciated that the metronome system of the present invention can be adapted to play a plurality of sound recordings simultaneously and when a sound-causing event occurs, to play a plurality of different sound recordings on beat with the earlier sound recordings or on any other tick whereupon the CPU reads the game state data.
The metronome system of the present invention provides gaming devices with the capacity to interface, change or switch sound recordings when certain game events occur, while making such change on a code-driven metronome tick. Preferably, the ticks correspond to the sound recording beats. In such case, using a predetermined check-back rate, the CPU of the metronome system detects sound-causing events and simultaneously plays a new sound recording on-beat with the initial recording. This type of invention provides gaming machine players with more interesting sounds and music and increases player enjoyment.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a gaming device with a metronome system for interfacing sound recordings.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like parts, elements, components, steps and processes.